BLOGS

Angela write: “As an Archaeologist, I wanted my first tattoo to be something related to culture. The Ouroborus is an ancient symbol of a serpent biting its tail and has been a part of a number of cultures and beliefs including (but not limited to!) Egyptian, Greek (who “borrowed” it from the Phoenicians and gave it the name “ouroborus” meaning “tail-eater”), Norse, Chinese, Aztec, Hindu, and various Native American Indian mythologies. The snake in my tattoo is a custom piece by my tattooist, but the writing is straight from the earliest-known drawing of the Ouroborus in the Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra drawn around 1600BC. The Ouroborus has carried a number of meanings; the cyclical nature of the universe (the serpent eating its own tail to sustain itself), infinity and eternal unity (the text is translated as both “one is all” and “all is one” or even “the one, the all”), reincarnation, in Alchemy it is a purifying sigil, in Christianity it is a symbol of the confines of the physical world, and the serpent is often depicted with light and dark sides to it (i.e. yin and yang). In many myths, the serpent encircles the world – a myth that may have been inspired by those times of the year during which the Milky Way can be seen winding through the night sky, like a great snake. I chose this for my first tattoo because I have always been fascinated by cross-cultural symbols and one that encompassed so many meanings was particularly interesting to me.”

Thanks, but I the stub does seem to cast doubt on the date of 1600 BC attributed to it in Carl’s post.

Did even the name of Cleo exist that early?

I thought the Cleos were part of the (Greek-origin) Ptolemy dynasty, which only arose just after Alexander the Great (after 320 BC or so). Wiki says the first Ptolemy (Ptolemy Soter I) was one of Alexander’s generals.

so im gonna do an ouroborus tattoo, i like the full metal one but not the stuff inside. i like the words in urs. im trying to find a site that has a larger pic so i can have a guy copy em for my tattoo. if any1 has any links that would b way cool, or even what language the text is written in. that might be enough to help me track down a bigger pic

This is the only other oroborus that I have seen tatood onto anyone, the first being my own. Mine is around my navel because the circle with the navel as a dot is the chemical symbol for hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe. Mine is the Mojave green rattlesnake, the most deadly snake in Western North America, and has the chakra colors in the back pattern. Very symbolic (for me).

I can’t speak for the arabic, but the Greek text, if it reads το ωαψ does not say anything about a one or an all. το is the singular neuter article in the nominative, but ωαψ does not mean anything at all. Greek words are not allowed to end in ψ (ps), but only vowels, ν (n) and ς (s).